A new sand fly species, Lutzomia
aldafalcaoae is described from males collected in Vila Trindade, an urban
district in Aquidauana county, State of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, in October
1996. Taxonomic remarks and a description of the new species is presented.

In October 1996 an entomological
survey was carried out in the town of Aquidauana, State of Mato Grosso do Sul,
an area of endemic cutaneous leishmaniasis (Funasa-MS) and where the first notification
of American visceral leishmaniasis was registered. Aquidauana is located in
the Pantanal region at 21K0626262 and UTM 7735321. The climate is hot and wet;
the vegetation is scrub, and the Bodoquena range is close. During the field
study eleven species were identified: Lutzomyia longipalpis (Lutz &
Neiva), Lutzomyia cruzi (Mangabeira), Lutzomyia shannoni (Dyar),
Lutzomyia whitmani (Antunes & Coutinho), Lutzomyia termitophila
Martins Falcão & Silva, Lutzomyia forattinii Galati Rego Nunes
& Teruya, Lutzomyia lenti (Mangabeira), Lutzomyia hermanlenti
Martins Silva & Falcão, Lutzomyia sallesi (Galvão & Coutinho), Brumptomyia
brumpti (Larrousse), Brumptomyia sp. Three specimens of an undescribed
species were also found. These had been captured inside a house in the urban
district of Vila Trindade using miniature light traps (CDC).

The present description is based
on the characters proposed by the CIPA Group (1991) and Galati (1995).

Abdomen: presence of tergal papillae
only on the 5thand 6th tergites. Coxite 0.342 long, maximum width
0.114 (0.111; n = 3) with one basal tuft of 10 to 12 and a slack tuft with six
bristles implanted in the middle of the internal face. Style measuring 0.207
(0.200; n = 3) with four spines, one terminal, one subterminal, one external
intermediary and one internal basal. Subterminal seta present. Paramere 0.204
(0.212; n = 3) length, presence of ventral process in the form of a tooth, in
the middle of the structure and having the middle third covered by bristles.
Lateral lobe highly developed with 0.442 (0.443; n = 3) length and maximum width
0.035 (0.038; n = 3), the apex appears slender with from four to seven spatulate
setae. Ratio between lateral lobe/coxite 1.29:1. Aedeagus well sclerotized with
the extremity modified in the form of the nipple of a feeding bottle. Genital
pump 0.152 (0.162; n = 3) long. Genital filaments 0.383 (0.379; n = 3) long
being 2.52 X the length of the pump. The apex of the genital filament is modified
and bifurcated, reminding a champagne glass.

Type: holotype and paratype males
captured with CDC (miniature lights traps) in Vila Trindade, urban district
of the municipality of Aquidauana, Mato Grosso do Sul, on 12 October 1996 (F
Portes col.) and another specimen were captured in the same local on 13 December
1996 (F Portes col.). The material is deposited in the collection of sand flies
at the Centro de Pesquisas René Rachou-Fiocruz, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais.

The name Lutzomyia aldafalcaoae
sp. n. is given in honour of the researcher Alda Lima Falcão, Centro de Pesquisas
René Rachou-Fiocruz, Belo Horizonte, who has made important contributions to
the study of these insects.

TAXONOMIC DISCUSSION

The presence of spatulate setae on
the lateral lobe, coxite with a basal setae group, style with four spines and
subterminal seta, simple paramere and aedeagus fit L. aldafalcaoae sp.
n. in the subgenus Evandromyia Mangabeira, in the infraspinosa series
by Young and Duncan (1994). Eleven species are included in this subgenus, nine
in the infraspinosa series (Young & Arias 1977). L. aldafalcaoae
sp. n. can easily be distinguished from all described species: Lutzomyia
infraspinosa (Mangabeira), Lutzomyia begonae (Ortiz & Torres),
Lutzomyia brachyphalla (Mangabeira), Lutzomyia cerqueirai (Causey
& Damasceno) and Lutzomyia tarapacaensis Le Pont Torrez-Espejo &
Galati, because these species show the paramere bifurcate, while the new species
is simple, differing also from Lutzomyia inpai Young & Arias, Lutzomyia
bourrouli (Barretto & Coutinho), Lutzomyia pinottii (Damasceno
& Arouck) and Lutzomyia sipani Fernandez Carbajal Alexander &
Need due to the aspect of the apex of the genital filaments, which has its point
modified in the shape of a champagne glass; to the paramere, which has a ventral
process in the shape of a tooth and a tuft of bristles on the coxite which has
fewer setae than other species. L. aldafalcaoae sp. n. differs from all
the species of the subgenus, by the number of the spatulate setae on the lateral
lobe numbering from of four to seven, while on other species it varies from
zero to four and, further still, to the appearance of the aedeagus which is
modified into the shape of the nipple of a feeding bottle.

Following Galati's classification
(1995) the AIII reduction, the presence of Newstead spines on the 2nd palpal
segment, the lateral lobe with acute apex and the absence of papillae on the
7th abdominal tergite, classify the new species as belonging to the genus Evandromyia
subgenus Aldamyia. L. aldafalcaoae sp. n. can be distinguished
from other species of this subgenus by the presence of spatulate setae on the
lateral lobe. In this subgenus the species more resembling are Lutzomyia
walkeri (Newstead) and Lutzomyia dubitans (Sherlock), but can distinguished
by length of filament genital, that is bigger in L. aldafalcaoe sp. n.
and by aspect of paramere and aedeagus.

We will not put it in either of these
two classifications until the other sex is known, which will permit us to give
it the correct zoological status.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To Dr Eunice A Bianchi Galati for
her help with the figure of the sand fly, to Dr Aroldo Galvão, co-ordinator
of the entomology team of the Funasa-Mato Grosso do Sul for his collaboration
with field and laboratory work.

Young DG, Arias JR 1977. Lutzomyia
sand flies in the subgenus Evandromyia Mangabeira with descriptions
of a new species from Brazil (Diptera: Psychodidae). Acta Amazonica 7:
59-70.

Young DG, Duncan MA 1994. Guide
to the identification and geographic distribution of Lutzomyia sand
flies in the Mexico, the West Indies, Central and the South America (Diptera:
Psychodidae). Mem Am Entomol Inst 54: 303-324.

This work was supported by Fundação
Nacional de Saúde, Fiocruz and Opas (grant-FI/CSP/0798/99).